POITIER, SIDNEY

born Feb. 20, 1927?, , Miami, Fla., U.S. Sidney Poitier (left) with Lilia Skala in Lilies of the Field, 1963. Bahamian-American actor and motion-picture director. Poitier is recognized as the actor who broke the colour barrier in the U.S. motion-picture industry and made the careers of other black actors possible. Poitier was born prematurely in the United States while his parents were visiting from the Bahamas. He grew up on Cat Island, Bahamas, and returned as a teenager to the United States, where he enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II and served a brief stint in an army medical unit. Upon his discharge, he applied to the American Negro Theatre (ANT) in New York City. Refused a place because of his accent, he practiced American enunciation while listening to accents of radio voices and reapplied to the ANT six months later. This time he was accepted, and he began studying the craft while appearing in a series of ANT productions. He made his feature-length movie debut as Dr. Luther Brooks in No Way Out (1950), the racial drama of a black doctor attempting to treat unwilling white patients. This film established a significant pattern both for Poitier himself and for the black actors who followed him; by refusing roles that played to a racial stereotype, Poitier pushed the restrictive boundaries set by Hollywood and made inroads into the American mainstream. Another of his notable early roles is that of Gregory Miller, an alienated high school student in the film adaptation of Evan Hunter's Blackboard Jungle (1955). Despite his budding film career, he continued to perform in live theatre and won critical acclaim on Broadway in 1959 with his starring role in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Poitier also starred in the 1961 film adaptation of the drama. Among his other early notable film performances were those of Noah Cullen in The Defiant Ones (1958; Academy Award-nominated for best actor), Porgy in Porgy and Bess (1959), Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field (1963)for which he received the Academy Award for best actorand Gordon Raife in A Patch of Blue (1965). He was the first black actor to be recognized by the Academy and the first to insist upon having a certain percentage of black crew members. Poitier also starred in three popular movies in 1967In the Heat of the Night, To Sir with Love, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. In 1969 Poitier founded the First Artists Production Company, and in 1972 he made his directorial debut with Buck and the Preacher. He continued to directmaking such films as Uptown Saturday Night (1974), Stir Crazy (1980), and Ghost Dad (1990)also acting in some of the pictures; and he produced and performed in the television movie Free of Eden (1999). He was a recipient of many prestigious acting awards. A dual citizen of the United States and The Bahamas, Poitier in 1997 was appointed ambassador to Japan for The Bahamas.